Foot-baths are a valuable tool for the management of cattle, especially in larger scale dairy and feedlot operations. Their use can clean the feet or hooves of the cattle, killing bacteria, viruses and fungi, and generally helping in the heath and hardening of the hooves. When used to deliver the appropriate treatment, the use of foot-baths helps to reduce lameness associated with foot-rot, foot-and-mouth disease, heel erosion and digital dermatitis. For modern dairies, the foot-bath is typically included in the design of cattle housing, generally near the exit from a milking parlor, in a position through which cows normally move, or in an adjacent area through which cows can be diverted when necessary, with minimal disturbance to their normal routine. Ideally, two foot-baths should be used in tandem, the first containing water to clean the feet, and the second containing the suitable treatment chemical.
Conventional foot-bath systems are maintained and operated by on-site workers and personnel, who simply fill an empty foot-bath with a concentrate to a predetermined level, and then top off the foot-bath with water. This conventional technique sometimes results in foot-bath solutions that are too weak for effective treatment, or are too strong and may injure the feet of the cattle. A known improvement to this conventional, manual method includes the automated, metered control of the concentrate into the foot-bath. Such automatically metered systems have the potential to reduce the accurate delivery problems often encountered with the manual method. However, these automated system either require some sort of remote monitoring or feedback to a controller, or requires a user to program the controller to precisely follow the processing of cattle.
An economical and foolproof method for the operation of a cattle foot-bath is needed that provides the foot-bath with an accurately measured hoof treatment solution as needed for the particular cattle handling operation, without programming an expensive and difficult to maintain controller or some other automated, fallible feed-system apparatus. A detailed understanding of the present invention's features will be had upon reference to the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.